Konoha's Holidays: Christmas
by Esellyn
Summary: An Uzushio Christmas. Turned into a bit of a lecture on Uzushio culture, but it's fun.


**(A/N) Haha, what can I say, I might be mildly obsessed with Uzushiogakure. As in, I managed to write an entire essay on it for English… Do I have a problem? The Uzuki clan specialized in Musical genjutsu. Maybe I'll explain it later. At the bottom. Sorry for it pretty much turning into a lecture on Uzushio culture. **

An Uzushiogakure Christmas

While most holidays were known to have started in the clans that made up Konoha, (Akimichi were the ones to start Thanksgiving(not that they needed another reason to feast) Uchiha started Halloween(their favorite! Little devil children) and the Senju started Easter(oh how they love their colored eggs)) Christmas started with the Uzumaki. They weren't a Konoha clan, but Mito had brought Christmas traditions with her when she became Hashirama's wife. Konoha took happily to yet another holiday, and the rest of the world figured this was just one more reason that no one bothered to deal with Konoha and Uzushio. They were insane.

One particularly memorable incident with a Uzuki clan member had a poor Kiri nin bringing a plague of a specific song being stuck in everyone's head.

"Y'know," the Uzuki clan member noted, bringing her violin up, "There's this awesome song that I totally wanted to know what it did to enemy shinobi. It's a Christmas carol back home, and well, no one ever bothered to use it in an attack."

The Kiri nin stared at them, confused.

The Uzuki clan member grinned, beginning to sing and play. "On the first day of Christmas-" on the plus side, she had a nice voice. On the same side, she was also very good at her art, practically a symphony coming from her violin. On the other side, the poor Kiri nin was seeing everything she was singing about.

"And a partridge in a pear tree!" She finished, drawing out the last note on her violin.

Yet another genjutsu bird joined the others in the genjutsu pear tree at her side. The Kiri nin's head was spinning with the effects of the genjutsu, so they could only blink in confusion.

The Uzuki grinned disarmingly, shooing the Kiri nin off. "You're friends are retreating! Better go with them!"

Twelve Days of Christmas was the only song that the Kiri nin was singing for months. And it only spread, infecting everyone they came in contact with. All of Kiri was singing the blasted song for months on end. Only reinforced when any Uzuki clan members that Kiri nin came in contact with, started playing Twelve Days of Christmas. According to rumors, the song is still used as a torture technique in Kiri today.

Holidays in Uzushio were always interesting affairs, especially when the Uzuki got involved. Music was everywhere, laced with chakra. Being Uzumaki, they never did things halfway, so everywhere was strung up with seals laced together to form chains of lights of all colors. Evergreen trees were stationed at every corner, all done up in lights and little ornaments. Or not so little ornaments.

Those outside of the Uzuki clan were often confused when most gifts were instruments. Except the Uzumaki, who knew exactly how much the instruments meant to Uzuki.

Uzuki collected instruments. They were passed down, taken very good care of, and most importantly, used. Uzuki waiting for children collected training instruments, waiting for the day their guppy would pick their favorite instrument. To a Uzuki, music was life, but that didn't mean there weren't Uzuki who preferred a different specialty. And not everyone used music in battle, there were civilians, of course, no city can survive without them. Civilian Uzuki were often metalworkers. They used the large deposits of chakra metal in their northernmost tip to their great advantage, twisting metal into kunai, swords, and instruments.

Different instruments channeled different chakra. High winds, flutes, clarinets, and sometimes high brass did best with wind chakra channeled through them, carrying the sound on the winds, spreading it far and wide.

Violins and violas did best with lightning chakra. They influenced the body, enhancing their allies, and degrading their enemies. Violins worked well with wind chakra as well, and violas worked with water chakra.

Lower instruments like tubas, trombones, basses, and drums worked best with earth chakra, the chakra forcing the sound out into the earth, shaking those it came into contact with.

Middle instruments, violas, alto clarinets, alto saxophones, and even the occasional piano worked with water chakra, diluting and spreading the sound, gentling it, but not changing its effects.

Uzumaki loved collecting scrolls. Like writers, they loved collecting notebooks, scrolls, and books. Even if they weren't always written in, they loved hoarding them, just in case. For Akai Arashi, jutsu scrolls were wonderful gifts.

For Hogo Uzu, ink was always a welcome present. They ran out of it a lot.

For Kieru Shio, they had a fascination with fantasy and action books. Mostly so they could get more ideas for genjutsu. Needless to say, there was always a slight influx of very confused enemy shinobi when they were the guinea pigs for something a Kieru Shio Uzumaki read in a book. It didn't always work, but the results were amusing anyway. Very confused shinobi.

Difenda no Shio almost always found it amusing if they got weights, as clearly they had better things, but they wore them anyway, linking them with seals, and generally having fun with them.

Iyashino Shio branch members were just happy if no one got hurt. Although gifts of medical supplies were always appreciated.

Each individual had their own preferences, of course, but each branch was fairly easy to predict as a whole. Uzumaki were a fairly easy-going bunch and tended to appreciate gifts, as long as they weren't too ridiculous.

**(A/N) Ahaha, sorry about it pretty much turning into a lecture on Uzushio culture, but hey, at least you learned something! Right? Merry Christmas! **


End file.
